title: [Analysis and evaluation of the QUALIFY tool for assessing quality indicators with structured group interviews].
abstract: Quality indicators are used world-wide to monitor the quality of health care. For these indicators to be effective they also have to meet certain quality criteria. The QUALIFY tool is used for assessing the quality criteria themselves against a scientific background. The present paper evaluates the QUALIFY tool and provides an indication of its further development. The evaluation of the QUALIFY tool was carried out using structured group interviews. Participants of the first focus group were involved in both the development of the tool and in its implementation. The second focus group exclusively consisted of QUALIFY users. There was no essential difference in the rating between the two focus groups. Up till now, QUALIFY has been used for the designation of quality indicators for the German Quality Record for Hospitals, for a pre-selection of indicators for the National Disease Management Guidelines, and for a pharmaceutical drug safety project of the Coalition for Patient Safety. Its wider distribution is hampered by the fact that the actual QUALIFY tool is far too complex and requires a lot of resources. Nevertheless, its cost-effectiveness was rated 'adequate' because the application of inappropriate quality indicators can be very expensive. Our ambition should be to define QUALIFY subsystems of various complexity for different purposes and to enforce anchoring of the tool at an international level. QUALIFY, and thus the assessment of quality indicators, has entered virgin territory. Since quality assessment will be gaining relevance the further evaluation and development of these tools is warranted. In this context group interviews could provide an applicable approach to evaluating acceptance and implementation problems.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Gesundheitsökonomie und Klinische Epidemiologie der Universität zu Köln. Markus.Luengen@uk-koeln.de
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lüngen
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rath
mesh_terms: D019985:Benchmarking / Q000592:standards; D017144:Focus Groups; D005858:Germany; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000592:standards*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results